1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of searchable directories. Particularly to searchable online directories, and more particularly, to adaptable and dynamic search engines for use with online business directories.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Today, the Internet has proven itself to be an extremely effective communication medium. Given this reality, it is not surprising that there is a sharp increase in the number of content providers that employ the Internet, making the Internet space very competitive. Generally, content providers have varied offerings that include a wide range of products and services. Novelty, quality, and reliability tend to be distinguishing characteristics that separate competing content providers. Accordingly, Internet content and service providers are constantly trying to develop enhancements, improve their reliability, and improve their quality of content to better their position in the market space.
In the Internet services market space, a key service offers users access to searchable databases that maintain a variety of data and information. For example, databases containing indexed and categorized business listings, such as, a business directory. In the physical realm, this business directory is generally referred to as the xe2x80x9cYellow Pagesxe2x80x9d. Typically, Internet based xe2x80x9cYellow Pagesxe2x80x9d take the form of a computing application providing, among a variety of other functions, the ability to search vast amounts of business demographic information. The search component of this application allows users to pair down their search by a number of search qualifiers, such as, business name, business type, and geographic location (of either the business or of the user).
Internet based business directories generally rely on third party business information vendors for content. The third party information, however, is grouped according to general category schemes that provide little insight, if any, to the specific demographic information of the businesses listed in these categories. Business directory search engines that use such content perform de minimus operations often regurgitating the business listings according to the general category scheme. For example, a search for xe2x80x9cpizzaxe2x80x9d in this type of business directory may result in a list of all of the business listings having the word xe2x80x9cpizzaxe2x80x9d. As such these business directories often leave a user to navigate through volumes of unhelpful business results, rendering their initial search almost futile. In addition, current business directory search engines have complicated and cumbersome user interfaces that require the user to input a significant amount of preference information before performing the search.
From the foregoing it can be appreciated that a need exists for directory-type search engines that are capable of efficiently providing more relevant and useful content to users. By tailoring a search engine to provide more relevant data that in a more efficient manner, users are required to expend fewer resources to obtain desired directory listings.
The present invention provides a system and methods that allow the searching, maintenance, and display of directory listings. In an illustrative implementation, the system and methods contemplated may be realized in the form of an enhanced business directory search engine. The business directory search engine may support a user interface capable of accepting user search preference information. The business directory search engine may employ user preference information to provide relevant and helpful search results when processing search queries. The search preference information allows the user to search for information about businesses in a variety of manners including by business location, the location of the user, or by general business categories.
In operation, the business directory search engine may perform searches, including bounded and proximity searches, on business listing information using inputted data indicative of various location information, such as city name, state name, zip code, address, or a combination thereof. A bounded search may employ location information indicative of city name and state name, whereas a proximity search may utilize the zip code or address location information. The proximity search may perform the steps of creating a central geographic point (centroid) and then searching for businesses that satisfy the user""s search query within a specific distance from the established centroid (i.e. in a pre-define distance range).
Further, the invention provides that the business information, used by the search engine, may reside in a data store. This business information may be grouped, referenced, and categorized according to a pre-defined taxonomy. In addition, the information may be stored in an efficient data structure that may be passed between the database and the search engine application. In operation, the search engine may rely on the taxonomy in conjunction with the user preference information to find, gather, and display to the user the most relevant information to the user""s search query.